IJRET: International Journal of Research In Engineering And Technology

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

GAP-ANALYTICS (GEOLOCATION AND PLACES-ANALYTICS)

Yogesh R. Jadhav1, Sunilkumar R.Yadav2, Gautam J. Kale3, Atul R. Barve4
1,2,3,4

Student- Sanghavi College of Engineering, Nashik

Abstract
World is the full of interesting places and can be confusing and overwhelming at the same time. There can be instances where
people might get lost or enter unsafe areas unknowingly. To address such issue, GAP-Analytics (Geolocation and PlaceAnalytics) is an android app and a Web application that helps its users to know their current location, search for places of their
interest like hotels, police-station, hospitals etc. around them. Using android as its platform is benecial looking at the market
share of android OS as it can reach out many people. It will help data analysts to get statistics of activity of people around a geographic location from online dash board by maintaining the privacy of the users. Smart phones are great devices which are intelligent and if used properly, it can save us from a lot of unpleasant situations. By using location services from android environment, this app provides location features. This app uses Google location API V2, Google Places API and Google Maps api in its
android client application. On the server side it uses windows ASP.NET Web Services to serve client requests.

Key Words: LBS, Geolocation, Geofencing, GPS, API, WCF, REST.

--------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------1. INTRODUCTION

2. ARCHITECTURE

Location Based Services (LBS) is an area of services which

focuses on providing a custom regional experience to the
users by providing them information and services according
to their present location. GAP-Analytics is the location
based application which includes an android app as its client
and .NET Web service as its server component. Android app
provides current location of the user and thus, provides
location input to the system to provide various location
based services like tracking, geofencing, nding points of
interests, nding who is around you and many other
features.Location based services have evolved over time and
has become very vital in current digitized world. Internet is
spreading in every nook and corner of the world at a very
brisk pace. Along with internet, gadgets like smart phones
have changed the way we live and work in todays world.
The reasons for location services to become a key player in
general peoples life are:
1. High end processing power of smart phones
2. High speed internet connectivity
3. Cheap manufacturing cost of GPS hardware
4. General interest of the consumer in gadgets

This app is based on client server model where android app

is the client whereas ASP.Net web service serves client from
the server. Server gets the requesting client the coordinates
of the subject to be tracked through HTTP request and response method. We can use either SOAP or REST full service model for client-server communication implementation.

Location based services (LBS) are on the rise with advancement in technology and low cost of integration of GPS on mobile phones. Users can enjoy regional services and get to know
about their surroundings far more easily than ever before.
Family safety and security and be made easy by sharing location among family members. World is digitizing, so it is necessary to get the maximum juice out of it and use it for simplifying and enhancing our lives. With technology as a part of our
life, we have a bright future and can lead intelligent life by outsourcing mundane tasks to technology. This project will try to
provide travel and safety utility to its users. This project will try
to deal with many aspects of LBS and will try to provide a good
user experience and helpful features that will surely help the
user and save his time.

Fig. 1: Architecture
Our project works on the principle of distributed computing.
In distributed computing, the system is divided into components which are physically remote to each other. But when
user uses this system, he gets the illusion that the computer
he is using has all its resources at one place.
In this project, the components of distributed system are:
1. Android Client: This is the app that is installed on end
users smart phone.
2. Web server: It provides back end for storing location
related data.
Whenever client starts his app, he can use the data available
on servers without knowing that such data is stored remotely
and is being transferred through internet. Such distributed

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Volume: 05 Issue: 01 | Jan-2016, Available @ http://www.ijret.org

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IJRET: International Journal of Research In Engineering And Technology

nature is seen when a user tracks another user, searches for

nearby places and checks if anyone is around him or not.
Application specic server stores user location data on the
cloud and acts as an interface between multiple android
clients. Server performs different operations like computing
distance between two locations, searching contacts, registering users, sending alerts and geofencing. For all data relating
to nearby places and maps, it is handled by Google servers
by the use of Location service APIs from Google. To get
detailed information about your current location, wikipedia
provides the information. We make use of GPS, Wi, network signal and Proximity sensor for their respective operations.
We use REST service framework to make calls to different
servers from our client app.

Fig. 2: REST framework

REST is an architectural style for networked hypermedia
applications, it is primarily used to build Web services
that are lightweight, maintainable, and scalable.

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

REST does not put a restriction on the format of a representation.

It is platform independent, any applicatio can access
REST services.
It is the most widely accepted framework for recent application development

2.1 Algorithm
Input: Current location, proximity sensor reading.
Output: Location aware service like prole automation,
reminder, important places around you, weather, tracking
other users, proximity alert.
Step 1: Install android client app.
Step 2: Register using email, name and mobile number.
Step 3: Login Step
Step 4: From options menu select operation you want to
perform:
My Location: Select this option to get your current location
Add Contact: Manually add contact to this app.
Contacts: View list of contacts with which you are sharing location.
Places: Find interesting and important places around
you.
Geofences: Congure your geofences to automate tasks
or get alerts.
My Location Wiki: Opens a wikipedia link to your current location and gives details.
Forecast: Get weather forecast.
Step 5: Stop

2.2 State Transition Diagram

Fig. 3: State transition diagram

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Volume: 05 Issue: 01 | Jan-2016, Available @ http://www.ijret.org

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IJRET: International Journal of Research In Engineering And Technology

State Transition example shows the state transition diagram

of android app. The states are represented in ovals and state
of system gets changed when certain events occur. The transitions from one state to the other are represented by arrows.
The Figure shows important states and events that occur
while running the android app.

2.3 System Description

Let G represent from system as a set of tuples as follows:
G = I, O,T,S,W
where, I= Input O= Output T= Time S= Sensors W= Web
service
I = Input = L where, L = Location = (latitude, longitude)
O = Output = L, W, P, F
where,
L=Location, W= Weather, P = Places F=Geofence alerts
S = Sensors = GPS, Wi, Proximity W = Web service = L1,
S1, P1 where,
L1=Load operation S1=Store Operation P1=Processing data
T = Time= R1 + R2
where, R1 = Request, R2 = Response
R1 = Gathering input (t1) + Transport on internet (t2) +
Server (t3) + Weather (t4) + Google (t5)
R2= Google(t1) + Weather(t2) + Server (t3) + Transport (t4)
+ Formatting received output (t5)
R1 = ti = t1+t2+t3+t4+t5
R2 = tj = t1+t2+t3+t4+t5
T = R1 + R2
Thus, T denotes total time taken for processing of input and
giving out the output.
Distance between two coordinates
Haversine formula:
a = sin2(4/2) + cos1cos2sin2(4/2)
c = 2atan2(a, (1a))
d=Rc
where is latitude, is longitude, R is earths radius (mean
radius = 6,371km); note that angles need to be in radians to
pass to trig functions!
Thus, working of our algorithm takes xed linear time
which is dependent on numbers of inputs given to our algorithm.

2.4 System Features

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

Set alarm/reminder for a particular location.

Geofencing used with child location services, can notify
parent if a child leaves a designated area.
Change mobile prole depending on particular geofence
3. Places

Find police station around you.

Find the Bus stop/air-ports around you.
Find hotels near you.
Find hospitals around you.
Find ATMs near you.
Find the important landmarks near you.

4. Weather
Get current weather based on your current location.
Get current weather of your family/friends/colleagues
from their location.
5. Analytics
Get data about peoples location patterns over a period of
time.
Get danger zone areas from users who triggered SOS
messages.
Get report on frequently visited places by users.

2.5 Important Classes

Table: Important Classes
Class

Description

Activity/ActionBarActivity

Provides activity life-cycle

methods to
manage activity operation.

LocationListener

from an android device.

GoogleApiClient

Find your friends/family/colleagues on Google Map.

Find who around you within a specied range.
Find last known location.
Send distress message/alarm to your near ones.

GoogleMap

Provides facility to integrate

and manipulate Google Map
in our app.

Service

Allows to create background

service
which is isolated from main
app process.

2. Geofencing
It allows user of the system to draw zones around place of
work, customer sites and secure areas these geofences when
crossed by an equipped person can trigger a warning to the
user via SMS or email.
Detect if you enter/exit an area of interest/danger.

Provides facility to connect

to Google
Play Services and get location updates.

1. Tracking

Provides facility to get current location

BroadcastReceiver

Provides facility to listen for

different
broadcasts (events) arising
within Android OS.

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Volume: 05 Issue: 01 | Jan-2016, Available @ http://www.ijret.org

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IJRET: International Journal of Research In Engineering And Technology

2.6 APIs
Googles Location API V2:
This is the API provided by Google to get access to location
data from android system through API calls. These API calls
interact with android OS and GPS hardware to get current
location of the device. Users need Google Play Services
installed to get service from this API. Developers also need
to obtain API key from Google Developer Console. Depending upon the usage, we need to get subscription from Google
to use their location API. Google now provides FusedLocation API which is energy efcient and intelligently chooses
between available location providers such as network, Wi
and GPS to determine current location.
OpenWeatherMap API (weather):
OpenWeatherMap API is open source weather API based on
Creative Commons 2 license which provides weather updates covering the whole world. It is simple to use and provides with required weather data for the given location coordinates. This project aims to provides location based experience by combining weather data to help users get to know
more about a particular location. In order to use this API, we
need to obtain API key which will identify our application
requests to its servers.

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4.2 New User: This is a user who has installed our app but
havent yet registered to use our app to avail location based
services. This user can at his status can perform following
actions:
Install our app
Register to use our app
4.3 Admin: This user can view all the registered users and
can track registered users in the case of emergency and
emergency requests from other registered users. He can perform following actions:
Track any user in case of emergency
Delete accounts of any registered user
Sends emergency announcements to registered users.
4.4 Data Analyst: This is the user who deals with analysis
of large amount of data. In our project, such analysts can
study location patterns and identify danger zones based on
users emergency message origins. His actions are as follows:
Find location patterns for their interest
Get data about danger zones from user alerts
He can predict advertising strategy based on location of
users

5. OPERATIVE ENVIRONMENT
3. LEGAL REQUIREMENTS
Need developer key to upload app to Play Store. Need to
obtain API key to use Google Location API V2.
To use Location API for enterprise level usage, we need
a legal license from Google which can be purchased online from their website.
User should allow location service and should not use
this app if user nds it is invading their privacy. Aim of
this app is to provide location based experience with
safety, thus you should choose carefully the people
(trusted) with whom you want to share location.
It is illegal to use Google location data on maps other
than Google maps. You also cannot cache maps from
Google maps without permission.
We need to obtain free API key from OpenWe therMap
to use their weather service.
Maintaining privacy is important requirement which can
be achieved through encryption.

4. USER PROFILES
4.1 Registered User: This is the user who installed our app
and registered for using location based services. This user
can perform following actions:
Tracking
Geofencing
Find who is around you
Get weather report of current location and location of
tracked users
Get detailed information about current location through
wiki page

Android Operating System: Android is an open source

operating system maintained by Google and is quite popular
among smart phone community. Developing in android requires knowledge about Java programming language. Android runs on embedded SoC which includes GPS, Wi,
Processor, RAM, USB interface etc.
Web Service: Web service runs on cloud environment with
shared hosting companies like Godaddy which charge you to
use their resources to run your web service. As the hardware
used is of hosting provider, developer do not need to invest
in high cost hardware.

6. PROJECT RESOURCES
Hardware resources: Android smart phone, cloud web
server host
Software resources: Google Location API, OpenWeatherMap API, Android Studio IDE, Visual Web Developer IDE,
Project Management tool-Wrike, Wikipedia
Human Resources: Android developer, ASP.NET developer, tester, Documentation engineer

7. CONCLUSION
Users of this app can be sure about the movement of their
near and dear ones. People can track and get valuable information about their surrounding environment through Google
Places API. We can make proper use of smart phones as an
intelligent device by using its features like wi, mobile network data and GPS. Thus, city planners, analysts and security services can use this project to study location patterns and
monitor people about their geo-points of interest.

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Volume: 05 Issue: 01 | Jan-2016, Available @ http://www.ijret.org

42

IJRET: International Journal of Research In Engineering And Technology

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank Prof. Bajirao S. Shirole (Sanghavi
college of engineering, nashik) for providing guidance and
proper direction in developing our project and necessary motivation and support.

REFERENCES
[1] J Schiller, A Voisard, Location-based services, Publisher:
Morgan Kaufman, Year: 2004, 500 Sansome Street,
Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94111
[2] Android Wireless Application Development by Shane
Condor and Lauren Darcy
[3] OpenWeatherMap
API
http://www.openweathermap.org/api
[4] Google
Location
API
https://www.developers.google.com/maps/documentatio
n/android-api/
[5] Geoawsomeness
http://www.geoawesomeness.com/knowledge-base/ location-based-services/location-based-services-chronology/
[6] Google
Developer
Console
https://console.developers.google.com/project
[7] Android
tutorial
https://developer.android.com/training/index.html

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Volume: 05 Issue: 01 | Jan-2016, Available @ http://www.ijret.org

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